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| Sports ExtraSunday, June 29, 2008 11:23 PM CDT |
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Extreme hoping to Rage toward a legacy
BLOOMINGTON -- Two years ago, it was a goal. Soon, it can come to fruition. | Extreme gameday glance Entering United Indoor Football as an expansion team in 2006, the Bloomington Extreme hoped to create a championship tradition. Now, the Extreme is inching its way closer to establishing a winning legacy as it enters tonight’s 7:05 Eastern Conference championship game against the RiverCity Rage at U.S. Cellular Coliseum. A win would put Bloomington (7-7) in the United Bowl IV, against Western Conference winner Sioux Falls, in its third season in the league. “I thought it would take longer,” former Extreme coach Ted Schmitz said. The Extreme is currently on a three-game home winning streak, a franchise record. In those games, Bloomington has won by an average of 11 points. That, combined with a rested team, has Bloomington quietly confident. “It should be a huge advantage to have a playoff game at home,” Extreme coach Kenton Carr said. “That’s what you want to do and that’s what you work for.” Still, RiverCity poses a major roadblock in the path to the United Bowl. The Rage has won four of its last five games by an average of 12 points, including a 32-29 overtime win over Bloomington on May 31. “They’re a good ballclub,” Carr said. “They have a lot of good athletes. They’re loaded.” RiverCity possesses one of the UIF’s best defenses and has a terrific special teams unit that accounted for 14 points in its 37-33 playoff win over Sioux City last week. “We’re going to have our hands full. It’s not like we’re playing a scrub team,” quarterback Dusty Burk said. “We’ve got to play our best football to win.” Bloomington is 2-1 against the Rage this season, but blew leads in their last two meetings. In a Week 9 victory, the Extreme led 45-28 only to see RiverCity cut to three points late in the fourth quarter. Four weeks later, Bloomington gave away a 23-6 lead in a frustrating loss in St. Charles, Mo. “We didn’t have that killer instinct,” Carr said about his team’s previous games against the Rage. “Yeah, we’d start off strong, but we didn’t have that knockout punch.” Now, the team believes it has the capabilities to put opponents away because of those games against RiverCity. “We learned what to do and what not to do,” Burk said. “I felt like our loss last time was self inflicted. They played well, but there were a lot of things that we did poorly that I think we can correct and if we do that, it will be a good night for us.” Bloomington has spent the last two weeks making sure deficiencies have been corrected. With solid practices behind them, the players are ready to take the next step. “I think we’re comfortable and in our groove,” Burk said. “I think we’re confident, but I don’t think we’re over confident.” Rage at ExtremeWhat: UIF Eastern Conference championship game When: 7:05 p.m. Where: U.S. Cellular Coliseum Records: RiverCity 7-8, Bloomington 7-7 Radio: WTRX-FM (93.7) E-mail this story | Print this story | Search archives | RSS Show comments |  Hide comments | Hide comments on all stories |
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